Nimble Collective Partners with Zerply to Reinvent Animation Industry, and Bring Top Talent to Production Studios

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Nimble Collective - the first to democratize the 13B dollar animation technology industry by bringing it to the cloud -  announced that it has joined forces with Zerply, a marketplace for high-end production creatives in Film, Games and VR, who have worked on Marvel film sensations like Black Panther, Oscar Winning "Shape of Water," Doctor Strange, Game of Thrones, Star Wars: Battlefront - and more.

The Animation and visual effects industry has experienced a major market shift over the past decade where *70 percent of creative talent are now contractor workers, verses only *20 percent several years ago. This has created major challenges for production studios given the time it takes to continually recruit, onboard, and manage, on-location contract talent. To help studios and production facilities adapt to this new way to work, two of the industry's most innovative companies have joined forces to deliver a cloud-based production platform to streamline performance and plug into an elite pool of animation talent. 

"Technology combined with talent will change the game. The world of work is changing and we are responding by integrating talent sourcing into our mix," said Rex Grignon, Co-Founder, CEO, Nimble Collective. "By partnering with Zerply, we are giving studios the opportunity to tap into a vast network of top creative talent so they can bring their creativity to life."

Founded in 2014 Nimble Collective is the brainchild of animators from Toy Story, Madagascar, Lord of the Rings, How to Train Your Dragon and Megamind - industry veterans from DreamWorks, Pixar, and Google. Nimble is developing a studio-ready cloud-based production pipeline and offers animation production teams an entire animation studio infrastructure available via browser – including cloud-based workstations, storage, professional workflow and more. Staffed by a team of expert creators with a deep love of storytelling, Nimble focuses on empowering studios and storytellers with a location independent platform to eliminate the challenges of complex infrastructure – with Nimble, animation teams can get more work done faster, at a higher quality, and at a lower cost.

"In the coming years, creative talent will be hired remotely and on a flexible contract basis," said James Bennett, co-founder and CEO, Zerply, Inc. "Zerply's technology connects production managers to a global pool of available, vetted professionals for creative opportunities. Our platform bridges the gap between creative talent and creative companies so teams not only hire more quickly, they visually track the flow of talent as they enter and exit the market."

Zerply brings a community of 15,000 vetted professional creatives with experience working on such films, shows and video games as Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Shape of Water, Game of Thrones, Star Wars: Battlefront, and more. Working with some of the largest VFX, animation, VR and video game companies in the world.

About Zerply, Inc.
Zerply was founded to provide entertainment production companies with an exclusive marketplace of top-quality creative talent and the tools to assess candidates in minutes. Animators, illustrators, designers, and other creative pros can build a comprehensive portfolio to share their work and discover opportunities with ease. For more information on the future of contracting, how to find the best creatives on the market or manage your own in-house or remote teams, visit zerply.com

About Nimble Collective
Founded in 2014 by Academy Award-winning animators and technology entrepreneurs, Nimble Collective, is revolutionizing the animation content market by offering studio-level capabilities without the costly infrastructure. With all the production capabilities of the animation pipeline hosted in a secure cloud environment, animators and their collaborators, wherever they are in the world, are able to spend more time creating instead of managing complex and expensive infrastructure. With Nimble Collective, studios can spend more time creating, and save up to 75% less on overhead. Nimble Collective is the brainchild of animators Rex Grignon (Toy Story, Madagascar, and founding head of character animation at DreamWorks), Jason Schleifer (Lord of the Rings, Megamind) and Scott LaFleur (How to Train Your Dragon, Megamind). Learn more at NimbleCollective.com.

Media Contact for Nimble Collective
Robert van Gool
Liftoff Communications
415 505 2686
[email protected]

*These figures are based on Zerply's internal tracking metrics. A 'full-time contract' is defined as contracts lasting three years or more, or a series of consecutive extensions for a period of three years or longer at the same studio.

SOURCE Nimble Collective and Zerply